Ipconfig fails in XP

1st want to thank the many posts that help lead me to full success. It was a combo of events listed below. Needed all steps. Good news is I did NOT need to reinstall XP or use WINSOCKFIX utility.

System
Win XP Home Edition.
Home Wireless Network 801.11b
Installed Adware6 to attempt to eradicate Spyware
Norton AntiVirus Installed
Peer to Peer Network. Using One PC as "server" which connects directly internet and provides access to internet for client PC's (ie. not access point or router)

Symptoms. XP Client PC's on Wireless Network running very slow. Finally will no longer connect to wireless network. IP address on my "server" PC is 192. ... but IP address on clients is 169. .... Can't ping server. However, I knew WI-FI hardware is working because still have WI-FI connectivity to client PC's on network running Win98SE.


Steps

Virus Check

1. Run Norton AntiVirus - No viruses found

Adware/Spyware Eradication

2. Start->Control Panel>Remove Software. Viewed all programs and using Google Search as a reference removed all programs that were spyware/adware
3. Used Tasked Manager (cntrl-alt-del) and MSCONFIG (using Start-Run-CMD line) to view startup and process see all adware/spyware. Again used google to discern which programs/processes were adware/spyware.

4. Adware Spyware still running included TV Media and Winupdtr. Deselected these programs from MSCONFIG startup. Deleted files in C:\program Files\ and deleted keys from registry using regedit per postings above... but did not permanently eradicate TV Media

5. Manually removed TV Media registry keys using instructions at www.kephyr.com and/or posting above. But also must immediately do step 6 below.

6. Utilized posting that said TV Media was linked with Explorer. Must "Kill" Explorer Process in task manager, Killed Explorer, then used cntl-alt-delete to bring up Task Mgr again. Start CMD line from Task Manager and used CMD line to navigate to c:\Program Files\TV media files. And then delete using delete c:\Program Files\TV Media\*.*

Note to reboot I had to specify which mode to restart in while in MSConfig window. (For some reason my PC would not startup in SAFE mode by tapping F8 during reboot.) 1st selected Diagnostic Startup mode. (Could also go to WIN.BOOT tab to start in SAFE mode.

7. Used MS article "How to Determine and recover from Winsock2 corruption" found at support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811259 (I did have some corruption).

8. Opened Network Connections window. Right mouse click on Wireless Connections to open properties. Uninstalled Client for Windows, File and Printer Sharing, and deselected TCP/IP items. (Note: there is a posting to manually deinstall TCP/IP. I didn't do it).

9. Reboot.

10. Opened Network Connections. Right mouse click on Wireless Connections to open properties. Install Client for Windows, File and Printer Sharing, and TCP/IP items. Select Wireless tab. Selected Properites and Advanced tab for preferred network and ensure all settings were correct in accordance with postings above (I use WEP enabled)

11. Rerun "Setup a Home or Small Office Network" on client

Still had 169... IP address on client PC. The final solution not found above was Drumroll please......

12. Rerun "Setup a Home or Small Office Network" on my Server PC. IP address on Server changed from 192.68.0.1 to 192.168.0.1 and full connectivity was restore between all PC's on network and with the adware gone PC's are fast.

Thanks to tronz for posting (8/9/03) the correct fix for my NAV uninstall problems.

After uninstalling NAV 2003 on two WinXP machines, they would not acquire local ips from my LAN. Deleting the SYMTDI registry references worked like a charm.

On the first uninstall, I wasn't aware of this known problem and hadn't downloaded Symantec's special tool for complete removal. tronz's fix worked immediately (well, after an hour or so of searching around to find it). For the second uninstall, I ran Symantec's RNAV2003.exe tool (after following their directions to first try Control Panel>Add or Remove Programs)...and the same problem persisted !!!! tronz's fix to the rescue, again.

As a long-time Norton fan, I am disappointed at the direction Symantec has taken the software in the last several years. My uninstall debacle confirmed the wisdom of my recent switch to a different solution. How can a consumer trust a security company that, even when specifically writing code to do so, can't provide an effective uninstall program? My experience suggests that Symantec are either:

1) incompetent at coding or managing their software projects
2) don't care sufficiently about the end user (perhaps the corporate experience is different)
3) intentionally make it difficult to migrate to other products.

I encourage users to investigate other antivirus solutions...but I wouldn't be surprised if many on the bb reached that conclusion a long time ago.

[Jason425]

yea I quit symantec... it's a hog

Not the Corp. Edition.

[Jason425]

but the corp edition is ugly!

If your meaning of ugly means it don't have pop-ups when you boot and fancy config windows then your right. That's why I like it. It does it's job without all the annoying stuff. The only time I want to see a pop-up from it is when it catches something. And that's exactly what it does.

[Jason425]

AVG isn't as ugly! (as ugly I mean grey and nasty).. even though you can prob change it.. I'm just looking for excuses here!

[Dragon]

i had a probelm similar to the ones you guys are listing, more a combination thereof. basically my IP had changed on my PC, with no physical changes to the network. none on the network had any access to the internet however. basically, all i did was. shutdown everything, starting with the PCs and working my way up: switches, router, modem. and then waited for about 15 mins and plugged it all back in in reverse order. modem, 2mins then router, 2 mins, then switches, 2 mins then PCs and laptops. now it works fine. its a wired network by the way.

Rebooting is effective but not particularly efficient if it happens much...hopefully, Dragon, you don't have a recurring problem and won't be forced to do further troubleshooting (I know it would bug me as to exactly what happened).

Q: Seems some don't mind NAV Corp ed, but I just switched to ZA Security Suite, which I believe uses McAfee's antivirus engine...are there any problems anyone's aware of with this solution? It seems faster and simpler than NAV's solution.

PS as an independent, all I need is to protect a peer-to-peer plus a server or two behind a home router...Corp software not an option, nor desired.

[vee_ess]

Dragon, sometimes IP configurations can change if a certain system isn't powered on when others are. The reason is because one system stores all the information about a network and workgroups and keeps a table of what systems have what IPs. If that system isn't on when another boots up, the other system may set its own IP at the very initial IP of the set IP range. If you need to avoid this, disable DHCP and configure the IP of each system individually and manually. They will not change again, unless you change them.

Simulaire, make sure the router is a NAT (preferably with SPI). NAT is the single biggest security enhancement for the consumer market.